The team clears out the rest of the tower and find their most deadly foe... at least for the mage.

With the four remaining bugbears the party opt to check out the Chieftains’ bedroom after gathering all the gems and treasure the chief had in the room they killed him in. Finding more treasure Gottri allocated it for safe keeping before checking out the wall. The group go to the weapon room and see exactly how big the army was which was much bigger than anticipated.

Finding the Library Erymos opened it to get the party struck down by a fireball nearly killing himself in the process. Everyone was injured except for Grunk’s new cohorts who were killed. The party opts to not try that again and presses on with a note to try again later. The party prep at the next door for another trap with Harrimore ready to get the brunt of an attack. Walking forward he falls into a spike pit. The rest of the party look on in surprise as they find themselves looking into the pit from outside as the floor suddenly arcs dumping them into the trap. After everyone is alive and conscious Erymos swears and starts casting flight on everyone. Flying out of the bit was a lot easier than expected versus climbing out.

Gottri finds a glass key and further moving around gets the party wondering why Sir Harrimore is swinging his sword around at things. Torsten goes into full I’m turning this damnable evil (like you do) mode and the two walk side by side down the hall ready for evil to be around the turn. Seeing coffins the group stop when they see one of the two brothers true name etched into a coffin, after Gottri disabled another trap, this time gas, the party fling open the coffin and Torsten starts turning as Harrimore’s blade comes down on the creature before it even his or stand, (He let us know whatever was in the coffin he knew was evil from his sword so he was stabbing it regardless of what was down there).

Erymos got the odd hair idea to trying and figure out an incantation using the brothers true name on the spot to banish them from the plane. Meanwhile Grunk and Harrimore knocked the undead brother as he stood out of his coffin and to the ground. He was a bit surprised when Gottri suddenly was on him kicking away his sword and only melee attack really as his gasped from the sudden repeated thrusts from a dagger into his undead side. Rolling around with Gottri gave Harrimore and Grunk time to give chase, Torsten still turning following knocking over the neighboring coffin lid. Erymos in the middle of chanting sweeked out a warning of the other brother from a safe distance while Torsten continued to pray as Sir Harrimore and Gurnk moved back to back to attack both the brothers that surrounded most of the party. Torsten finished his chanting and an alabaster light exploded out from his lantern. The undamaged brother took off running in fear of the light of the lantern and the already wounded brother looked nervous as Sir Harrimore, Grunk, and Torsten moved towards him gliding over the ground bringing his doom. Erymos clenched up as the other brother ran towards him until he realized him running past and flew closer to the skirmish as he continued to formulate his spell as he moved.

With his brother abandoning him, his weapon stolen, he moved to escape until a flying Harrimore, Grunk and Torsten surrounded him. Torsten chanting again got a his from the undead brother until he felt a blade being buried in his back. Oddly enough Gottri had retrieved the curved wicked blade and had just buried it between the wrappings the brother wore.

As the trio battered the brother around Torsten continued to chant and Erymos’ spell finally completed. Two blue sprite like creatures formed next to him freaking him out, everyone was too busy to look at what he was screaming about. After poking one of the sprites a few times he figured he was safe. He asked them to go kill the brothers and remembered to say please before the sprites vibrated in place before flying off.

Erymos opted to follow the closest one telling the others to “Come watch what my awesome new spell does!” since abandoned, battered, and robbed of his weapon the one of the brother opted to just run. Moving through a door the party kick it down and hear wails of someone in pain. They also see a room filled with treasure. Gottri dove into a pile of gold, ‘Looking for traps’. Erymos flew past although interested wanted to find out what his spell was doing. Torsten, Erymos, Grunk, and Sir Harrimore rounded a corner to find the sprite had latched onto the undead brother and attacking or zapping him somehow, they seemed to be stuck together and he was occupied trying to pry it off the side of his head.

Erymos leaned into the rest and reminded them it’s not unhonorable to be the holy lantern oil out of the undead when they’re being attacked by an unknown entity and they quickly dispatched the brother, much faster than before. The body falling and the sprite turning into the ghost form of a young man jumped into the body and it turned to dust leaving a ring. Sir Harrimore pulled out a small leather pouch and put the ring in it, Erymos suggested filling it with holy water too maybe.

Looking back at Erymos they saw him writing down notes and asking them what they thought of various name ideas for the incantation. Turning around the group saw Gottri covered in a decorative golden coif and chained light cloak, a circlet on his head, and several rings now on his fingers as he shoved gold into a bag. He stated he had not found any traps but he’d need to keep looking to make sure.

Erymos explained they should find the other brother while he was weakened and asked about if it was any different to attack the brother after his spell sprite attached itself to him rewetting his quill to take notes. Explaining it was the group explained they agreed until the watched Erymos start shoveling gold as well. Realizing everyone was looking at him and seeing Gottri shaking his head at him in disappointment he said they should probably go now. Gottri looked at the gold and Erymos reminded him the brother might have a failsafe to destroy the treasure which got Gottri back in ‘Game on’ mode.

Eventually chasing him back into the room the party attack him and Erymos sees the guy trying to set off a device and runs up slapping him and telling him, “No! Drop it!” it a parental tone causing the device to clatter to the ground. The rest hack into the brother without his device but most start coughing due to the partial release of gas. With the second brother killed and exploded into dust they put another ring in the bag of holy water and turned to see Erymos frothing at the mouth and having seizures from the poison he was exposed to. Several comments were made about the delicate constitution of the Mage.

Once back up and walking the group try and figure out how they’d get all the treasure out. Erymos had gone to muttering to himself having cleared away an area on the ground and had been scrawling with chalk like a madman. The odd idea to get plants from the garden pungent to Owlbeasts and wrote a note on temporary bags of holding labeled, "Danger will explode soon, put in my tower within the hour (in experimental test room #4) and lock the door. Will be back shortly. -Erymos PS give all the injured Owlbeasts extra treats.’ was thrown out while he did it. The following day doing the same thing. Without having to worry about the treasure transport the party had time to investigate the library, grab loot off others that had died in the pit, get a few more casks of wine, and Erymos wondering if they could grab more herbal samples for their alchemist.

Bugbears; Unleashes Owlbeast Fury; Lots of Blood

With the party ready to sap a wall into the tower Gottri lets the team know there’s a patrol on route. After hearing a roar moving away the team looked on a group of confused Bugbears. Once Harrimore moved past Erymos to the tunnel entrance he began casting. The charging bugbears started dropping as arcane magic lanced through several of them before Harrimore and Grunk hacked them down to the last one running back towards their patrol captain. The group followed while Torsten and Erymos finished off the last of their numbers. Harrimore and Grunk cut down the last fleeing bugbear before seeing Gottri taking a flying leap from a craggy rock outcropping to take out the captain of the bugbear patrol. While deftly blocking his Morningstar the dwarf planted his feet getting inside the larger bugbear’s guard only to show him a blade covered with his own blood from another wound. Turning around to call for help gave him the picture of his last man falling to the ground with a leg flying off in a different direction from Grunk’s final attack. Once seeing everything fade to black he woke up in a cave.

When he did wake up he immediately demanded to be untied or killed. In his native tongue, with the mage talking to him it turned into a downward slope. He explained he would only help up if he could take over the tribe and basically take out the leadership above him. Calling Erymos a weak little man got Erymos snapping and yelling at him to ‘Look at him!” as he flailed his arms in a wizard’s robe. It was obvious he was weak since he was the mage of the group. Leading his quarterstaff onto the man’s gaping wounds and continue the conversation didn’t get much farther since as it moved over to common so the rest could understand the Mage reminded the group of what they did to flip Terrance. Granted since this bugbear seemed way too eager to have us slaughter people to get ahead with very little work it made him wonder about the scenario, letting Terrance live before ending up biting them in the end last time having to put him down rather horrifically (Death by broken neck from falling off a horse and a bolt through the chest). Eventually the bugbear having made his peace locked up with torture going no were. The group killed him and moved with only thirty minutes passing to clear up signs of the patrol and the scuffle. In the tunnel to finish sapping the wall it went surprisingly easy. Gottri scouted ahead finding a slave driver, and people in chains, cooking people. Harrimore, Torsten, and Grunk were having none of it and as the party tried to figure things out on a plan Gottri went back over seeing a chance he attacked the slaver. Erymos cast a spell on Grunk causing him to bound the distance he needed in one stride to kill the man.

Going back to the kitchen Gottri had several people starting to ask to be freed. Erymos went back and searched the jailer. With the freed people going into a panic Harrimore calmed them explaining how they could get out. Gottri gave them the horn once they were a good thirty minutes away from the tower to blow and then run away back to their villages. This calmed them some plus meeting local celebrities turned into the eccentric Mage giving out a business card and asked for people to mention who saved them to people. After mentioning ‘branding’ and getting the people armed with kitchen cutlery they were told to meet up with Hoofcrest a flying horse that could guide them to safety. Going back into the hall once done the party saw the dead slaver while the escaping prisoners fled. Erymos suggested putting him in one of the ovens and the body was dragged in. He stopped them for a second and shook his head striping off the armor and such and putting salt and herbs on him before shoving the body in and setting the temperature low.

With the horrified looks from the rest of the group the mage explained if it looked authentic they wouldn’t know it was a bugbear in there, plus a cook can’t search crappy food if he has pride. The party asked what that actually meant while investigating the waterfall stairs. Gottri found out it was magical. Investigating further around the basement had the group unlocking the cages to several more prisoners covered in butter and herbs.

Getting them freed by Gottri, calmed down by Harrimore, used as advertisement by Erymos had them washing off in the waterfall before getting dressed in leftover clothes from those already cooked, putting one guy in charge, giving him a heavy crossbow and a business card the party sent them off as well to catchup with the rest of the escapees.

The basement revealed a wine cellar designed by a mage it seemed since although it was several hundred years old the wine was actually still quite good, with Grunk just slugging back a bottle to test it in three gulps. Erymos started muttering numbers and pricepoints before shoving several bottles into his robe. Gottri asked if we were going to just take the whole stock to which Erymos replied ‘Yes, but later… also these are mine in my robe’. Another room revealed a magical herb garden on auto watering which was nice. Not having time to grab everything Erymos with his knowledge of plants opted to take what he thought was the most beneficial and another potted plant for immediate transplanting.
With the final door saying Laboratory Erymos debated it and mentioned Gottri should look everyone for traps even himself. Before he opened the door he looked at the rest of the group and reminded them if he did anything out of the ordinary to stop him. Harrimore reminded him he was an odd little man. Erymos corrected the statement saying him doing anything brave or out of the ordinary for him. Once the room was clear and Gottri called him in to see some monster Erymos walked in and looked around. The creature Erymos explained as a ‘girl with long eye lashes’ getting a raised eyebrow from most in the group. Gottri was the one who heard him explain he was going to free hear. Controlled by the monster Erymos started casting a spell since people seemed to want to stop him. Gottri tried to hold him down but several years of being around Fallen had toughened the mage.

Granted the paladin picking up him by the head and shaking him brought Erymos back around to his usual pathetic self since he started screaming for everyone to get out and don’t look on listen. Harrimore covered Erymos’s mouth and eyes with a hand and drug him out so he was harmless. With the creature begging to be let out and for the group not to go Erymos under duress motioned for someone to close the door.
The group mage opted to say they put a pin in the door and come back later; they had bigger fish to fry, since no one had gotten in there yet if the girl could wait a few hundred years a little longer or being buried forever couldn’t hurt. When Erymos started pulling out leather pants to wear since he noticed his current ones were soiled they knew he was back to normal since he took a few seconds to decide.

Going up to the next floor, Gottri found an entryway with several wall scultures. With the party trying to figure out if it was Frandor’s Keep Grunk actualy went into the explaination of the time and era they were from and what it was related to. With a large set of heavy bars dropping behind them slits opened up and the party looked at Gottri, ‘There are no traps?”[/b] Erymos said cynically before the bolt started flying. Harrimore and Grunk tried to bend the bars while the party got peppered with bolts. Erymos managed to get off a spell gumming up the murder holes with toxic web. The group took several more arrows from the other side though but the bars were bent open. Most were able to dive out except the mage who was bloodied and battered and dragged out by Gottri. While the rest of the group looked for the entry into the secret room Erymos quaffed a potion. With the door found behind a tapestry of a door opened Erymos shoved his way to the front reaching to his side. Telling the group to get ready to close the door he gave them sage advice.

”Never piss off the mage.” Erymos warned them before grabbing what looked like a ball of fur from the small cage on his hip. As he threw it the bugbears were surprised to see it grow in size to a massive horned great owl beast. With three murderous predators in the room now Erymos closed the door and looked to Gottri and asked to grabbed some of the climbing spikes to bar the door. Inside the scream and screeches were heard, Erymos whistled calmly as he worked on barring the door letting the group know everyone even the odd ones had a dark side. Harrimore and Grunk looked around when they heard cries for help the other side clamoring at their own hidden door.

With Harrimore and Grunk ready the largest of the bugbears charged out only to be knocked back into the room missing and arm from Harrimore, another took his place to get shoved back by a flashing glaive tip before he fell to the ground. With Torsten and Gottri covering the rear Erymos saw another door open to which he tossed out another web limiting how many could get out. With two in the main hall Harrimore and Grunk took out the other murder hole kill team of crossbowman. Torsten went toe to toe with one as Erymos saw the other coming at him. He yelled to Harrimore and Grunk he was coming towards them as he started backing up with his quarterstaff in hand. For a ‘weak human’ Erymos got surprisingly good at defense when it was one on one. He didn’t hit back but he didn’t have to as he felt two very large men behind him. Seeing the pile of dead bodies and the Paladin and Fighter rushing him he was cut down before he could do anything. The one on Torsten was hacked to pieces midswing before the group tried to figure out what to do to the ones in the mess hall Torsten said they were coming out of. Looking to Erymos who was looking at the pinned door explaining his Owlbeasts were still eating. Asking Grunk to bash the wall for a bit of rubble for a spell Erymos canceled the web spell and tossed in a magical grenade stunning the group before they rushed toward the door, Harrimore and Grunk started cutting through their numbers. When Harrimore severed the head of one of the bugbears blood spattering on the last living four bugbears Grunk said something surprising.

”I’m your new Chief, surrender or die.” was a pretty good deal considering what had happened.

The final four dropped their weapons and prostrated before Grunk. He oddly enough just smiled but didn’t kill them.

Getting a volunteer Erymos had one of them help him get the door open. When he tried to get his Owlbeasts into the cage it was awkward when he realized it didn’t work and closed the door behind the bugbear and asked for another volunteer. Hearing the clear songs of the owlbeasts eating Grunk was a little disappointed until Erymos explained he had asked if there was any way to kill Grunk. Getting a second volunteer got similar results. The third was quite nervous for such a large creature and Grunk was actually watching now, some quick thinking had the volunteer tossing in a fresh corpse by Erymos’s suggestion and he was able to capture his pets finally.

The final two bugbears lead the way and pointed out the throne room where the chief was. When they thought the job was done Grunk reminded them they fight or die. Erymos shook the cage and mentioned possibly both if they didn’t do as they were told.
With Erymos’ planar servant being summoned and a torch being lit Erymos got into an argument with his servant. The master reminding him to always toss the torch so he would be in the blast was always forgotten and Erymos stated this was never his fault for what happened to the bore invisible servant. What happened next was pure chaos. The two ‘loyal’ or ‘deathly afraid for their life’ bugbears breached the room and started attacking their upper leadership apologizing. Supposedly one of the two the ‘sergeant’ had ‘kids and couldn’t die like this’ but they still made short work of bludgeoning their former comrades that were unarmed up and down while crying. The obese bugbear chieftain rushed the group the other side of the table standing not noticing the bobbing torch behind them before it exploded killing them. The chieftan went down quickly between Grunk, Harrimore, and Gottri.

Erymos muttered for Grunk to ‘give them the speech again’ to which he offered them death or being his new ‘tribe’. Since the last four didn’t want to die they surrender. Fortunately the great owl beasts were in the cage so the bugbears didn’t need to volunteer for anything.
Asking the remaining survivors how come there weren’t more they explained some had gone out to find why the horn was blown. With the group wondering what to do they took a breather. The last hour or so had been surprisingly productive for exploring the area.

Dealing with the fallout of the alternate versions of yourself and life

Short Version: The group recap trying to figure out what the alternate reality versions of themselves have been doing for the past two years. The team opts to contract out the assassins guild since they’re trying to kill us for the war against Hadrian, start prototyping ideas for weapons to use in mass scale combat, an intel about the primary female elven leader of the capital that’s been missing for the past two years (was kidnapped right before the group left), broker a deal with the dwarves to possible get involved in the war. Broker a deal with the Elves since the Dwarves said they didn’t need to come since they can’t fight.

Current immediate plan is to get the key to the Crypt of Amun-Thul from a tower. The crypt might have a stockpile of treasure the party can use for war funds on a national/strategic level. Along the way the party come across a town being raided and opt to take out eleven of the dozen raiders that were marching off with children. The mage almost dies but is saved by Harrimore and Hoofcrest picking him up. Erymos finally drops an owlbeast out which maims or routed a quarter of the raiders by itself. With the raiders killed off the group help the town rebuild partially, Torsten tries converting them and the group figure their next move.

The team having spent several days tunneling via Erymos around the heavily enforced outskirts of the tower to funnel in right at the ground floor of the tower.

Two Towers, Two Names, Two Brothers, Three Wyrms, Countless Zombies, One way out...

The group gets together at a private room at the Flying Pegasus with three books they think will explain the missing pieces. Erymos thinks he’ll be able to open a portal back their own world if given enough time. The other books hint at possible futures and past combinations. For the most part the group decide to forgo stopping the Reaping of Souls festival and stick to their primary objective finding the true names of the brothers. Going to the Jade tower the party quickly escalate into a fight when asked to disarm for entry with the guards getting nervous from Sir Harrimore stating that won’t be happening gripping his Holy Avenger and Gottri pulling his blades out causing the guards to attack. The group dispatched the two guards in a matter of second and Gottri takes to trying to open the door, the locals look on somewhat surprised. Previously going to one of the two large towers got people confused on what the towers were and what they were talking about. Moving closer got someone warning the party until they were pressed for details to which they seemed to not know what the party was talking about in regards to a tower. Gottri looked at Erymos who looked at Torsten before commenting, ‘It’s like they took his forgetfulness and made it a spell…’

As Gottri worked on the lock the tower shifted to what Erymos thought was their own realm then back again to the alter dimension. Gottri though they were in hell from his comment to which Erymos reminded him if they were in Hell his hair wouldn’t look so amazing. This got a jaded laugh out of most as he worked the area shifting to a hell themed landscape before flickering back again to the alternate dimension. Climbing the long staircase up several miles oddly enough only took a few minutes. Getting to the top the party revealed the city below and the festival starting to take place. Gottri noticed the hidden flagstone in the middle could be flipped. Flipping it got them a stone with a name etched on it. It sounded like a common peasants name but the sudden rumbling got Gottri cursing since it meant the tower was trapped. As it started to lower rapidly Gottri took a potion and used the rope ladder and bolted off the side. With the ground coming up quickly the party dove to safety as the tower was swallowed into the ground.

Gottri commented that situationally it was a really effective trap if he thought about it. Looking at the second tower Erymos did make the comment there were two brothers with the festival in swing getting through the masses would be rough.

After using a hair scrunchy, getting goggles and starting to cast Erymos explained he’d need about two minutes for the group of eight to be souring over the city as the crow flies. Gottri asked about if Erymos needed to change his wardrobe to which Erymos answered that it was pretty obvious putting on a ‘flying’ cape.

Approaching the white tower on the other side of the city the party spot a wyrm to which Erymos opts to try and distract it wearing vestments of gold, and shaking bags of coin while multiplying himself. While odd to the wyrm it did take notice spouting wings before taking off. When it did so Gottri flew underneath him simply grabbing the rock since he knew it was trapped he just jumped off the side of the tower. with the names Erymos yelled they could start the portal creation process now. Harrimore suggested getting to a roof top and protecting Erymos as he got them out of this crazy dimension.

While he started it seemed the brothers and the Wryms tried to close in. One of them attacked Grunk which caused him to go into ‘Game on’ mode since he filleted the wyrm’s face. Gottri used a poison potion to put it to sleep while Erymos simply just blinded the large white wyrm. For the most part he wasn’t having the best of days.

One of the brothers called down fire on a few of the adventurers causing Erymos to delay on starting by taking a healing potion. Gottri ended up coming over and shoving another one in his mouth while he worked before feeling around in his robe for a loaded heavy crossbow. Gottri asked why he kept it loaded but Erymos explained it was pointing down so it was mostly fine. While Erymos worked the party dispatched another wyrm which now fell to the ground and was dispatched by zombies. The evil cleric brother narrowly missed death by diving Grunk who almost impaled him before he petrified him. Others coming up to assist heavily injured him while Gottri lugged Grunk away. Harrimore eventually subdued the other brother when he showed up screaming both the names at him gleefully seeing fear in the man’s eyes before decapitating him. With the portal open Erymos roared for everyone to get in. With the name stones and rubbings made they found themselves back at the small slab of stone surrounded by lava on the island. Erymos stretched since he had been casting a spell for an extended period of time and reminded everyone the flight spell was still active then mentioning they should get back to the ship. signallying the islander they rowboat made it back and they traversed to the island dropping him off before heading back into port.

With a pass to explore from the Dragon the group make their way around the island. Erymos finds some vegatation but can’t define it but explains it off as a fire proof fungi and the island is actually an active volcano. He also explains there was a barrier of sorts put in place through magic which is breaking down, his theory being their previous actions having possibly caused it to happen. Sir Harrimore finds everything around them is evil it seems.

Once getting through the rough spots Gottri goes off to Scout, while trying to pry the jewels out of a statue he gets possessed and comes back letting the group know there was nothing down there. Erymos writes it off and asks if people want to start looking for dormant volvanic tubes that may be the entrance. Harrimore and Torsten have a discussion since Gottri is not giving off an evil aura. When consulted on the idea of how it happened Erymos goes over and asks Gottri to loan him 10 gold without explaining why. Erymos states he has some of his (Gottri) sense of self but he might have been ‘whammied’ by something down there or a trap. When Gottri explains no and that he didn’t see anything Torsten and Harrimore strip Gottri down to just his beard leaving him known to pleased.

When Torsten suddenly yells, "Bind him! He will be exorcised’ a nude Gottri bolts. While Gottri tries to knock the sword from Harrimore’s hand Torsten grabs him from behind and pins him to the ground. Grunk unsure how excising works stays in the area but doesn’t want to get in on dwarf on but naked dwarf action roaring out he didn’t know what was going on and what were we doing. Gottri slipped free of Torsten and Grunk says screw it and hits Gottri with the but end of his glaive knocking him to the ground 15 feet away. from the gash on his head, now unconscious a form flies out. Erymos screams out ‘Shadow Beast! Do let it touch you!’ Harry attacked it followed by Erymos and Grunk.

With the creature defeated they wake and explain things to Gottri. Torsten asks why the scout is in the nude.

Down looking at the statues Gottri figures he disabled the trap on them by getingt possessed. Having disabled a trap on the door but not being able to get it open Erymos explains he’s got this and exlpains he needs some room to work. While heating the door to the point it becomes bright orange through his arcane skills the four statues come to life and Erymos screams like a damsel in distress.

Gottri tries to get into position when Erymos yells out weapons and magic won’t work run away since he wanted to try something. Gottri took the que to run, Erymos and Grunk let the guide and Torsten know what was going on. Moving away Erymos and Torsten in the front soon become just Erymos when Torsten is sent flying back behind him and up onto the bridge with a punch. Erymos tried using his spells to erode the legs of one of the golem statues. Harrimore knocked it into the lava surrounding the area they were escaping from. Erymos screamed for Grunk to carry him so he could concentrate and not die (actual phrase used) while he strated breaking the bridge causing another of the golems to fall into the lava. Running up and away the group pull the guide up who almost didn’t make it.

With the last two golems back in place Erymos wants to try and blow the doors before they cool down. It’s figured out to be a lot harder than he thought mostly just warping the doors but not fully opening them. Flying back to the top of the stairs with the rest Erymos pulls out tools and strarts scribbling explaining digging a pit and making it so the golems fall into it and down into the lava was doable. Checking over his work from a mining perspective he started fixing errors and said he had a plan. Which actually worked when Harrimore dropped him off to get the rest the party find Erymos in the fetal position since he was left to defend himself, not a skill he excelled in.

With Erymos resting, Gottri and Torsten figured out how to get into the broken door and the group filed down.

When they found themselves suddenly in a forrest Harrimore disbelieved the illusion. Erymos taking samples of rock and plants had him declaring they were not in an illusion or probably in a known area of their realm. Everyone looking up at the two moons confirmed it.

The party find out a going to the closest town, Half Moon Bay which didn’t look like the one they were at but more about the size and layout as the capital. The fact their clothes apart from Erymos had changed they thought it odd. Finding goblins selling things in the market that didn’t radiate evil was even odder. Finding out The Erternal light of the Moon where Father Torsten (Not an albino) was in bed sick was even odder than that. Having found out the ‘brothers’ would be in town the next night to reap souls litterally for some kind of festival did make sense since they were evil. Harrimore enlisted his minions in this area since the local version of himself was also in a coma like the Father Torsten of this area.

Grunk, Erymos, and Gottri go to Erymos’ bar which actually looks much better than Erymos’ bar. He took sketches before going in. Gottri found his alter ego’s boss and got him drunk and robbed him. Erymos looked around for a potrait of himself since this version of him seemed to be doing better he was probably more vain than he was as well. Finding a picture of himself he was surprised he looked okay in satyr horns… Going outside and turning into this world’s version of himself he stormed back in and demanded his eye. Since this version seemed better at everything he figured he was probably even more tempermental than he usually was. Getting a key he went to his room and saw the other him in bed with a female Centaur, dryad, plus a halfing hanging from the raffters. With a note to find new inspiration and success through creative recreation Erymos raided his own room for clues and supplies.

The group meet up afterwards to discuss exactly what was going on in this world turned upside down littterally.

The party take to the High Seas... For Justice and Money

Erymos gets a bead on buying three more bars from a dwarf wanting to retire from city life among elves to go living under a mountain. Gottri wants in on the deal, Erymos going in 50/50 with him when the deal falls through with getting the Warriors of Light LLC involved with buying in on businesses via Harrimore trying to strong arm a tithing from the business of 25% of the profit plus a share for himself shocking Erymos and Gottri alike. With the return of Graytar the surly mage that had been Erymos’ second mentor he looked around at the country boy turned mage’s success. Between tales of catching and Erymos recent experimentation with teleportation device to bring his owlbeast into combat made most nervous except Erymos and Grunk, the former of which laughed gleefully.

His former mentor brought word of assassins on the look out for Erymos and the fact the brothers they had killed, beheaded, and burned were still alive somehow. They’d need to travel to another of their crypts and find their true names. With the thought of people trying to kill him more so then usualy Erymos suggested they find a cleric and get to these isles away from the prying eyes and blades of people trying to kill him. Harrimore said he would make arrangements. Everyone in the bar stopped when Torsten walked in ready for battle and saying as such. From the talk with Harrimore Torsten may be considered to be playing hookie from his duties from Erymos’ point of view but with the wild look for battle and violence in the dwarf’s eyes Erymos shrugged considering it better than no cleric or someone truely detrimental to the group coming in.

The trip went well until the group was followed by pirates and attacked. Unforunately between Gottri’s deadeye shot to the pirate’s mage, Harrimore’s vanguard solo attack on Hoofcrest, and Erymos’s spells the group either killed, drowned, set swimming, or took prisoners of the 22 some pirates.

Erymos disturbed the captain prior to the attack with his sudden attempt to ‘improve’ his ship. Seeing the mage scurry up and repairing things made the man wonder what he did in a former life mending a burnt sail from scraps no bigger that a hand is wide.

With a new larger/faster ship in their convoy they party quickly made repairs and moved on in their journey to the island. Finding an island with people on it close to their destination they got details of the black rock island and the dragon that guarded it from the villagers. Erymos might have lost something in the translation explaining they worked for the Sun. Armed with a guide they dressed in pirate armor, a large bag of pearls, and knowledge of where the reefs probably were around the island they party set out to ‘negotiate’ with a dragon so they could find the names… they put a pin in coming back to kill the dragon afterwards.

Getting the Hard stuff out of the way.

With the feeling of two of the six golems the party redoubled their efforts one of Harrimore’s proteges taking a heavy blow only to recipricate on the foul greater with their brothers in unison. Harrimore decapitated one of the golems with his Holy Avenger surprised a bit how little resistance there was. The ground mounts a rally getting the Cleric back on his feet who seemed filled with rage and full of holy smithing as the last two of the Clay Golems were fell.

Searching through one doorway led the group deeper into the ruins, Gottri had the group hold up as he saw a trap and disarmed it, when he walked forward to inspect the next area a click and fire spoutted from the walls, as auible clicks and whirling of gears was heard the party watched the metal door behind them close, the floor in front of them incline upwards and a large boulder start rolling down the hallway towards them picking up speed.

Three of the party, Grunk, Harrimore, and one of this proteges slammed into the door behind them looking for an exit, Harrimore’s diciples drop kicking the door to knock it off its henge gave them an exit strategy. Gottri reversed the trap in the meantime stopping the rock while Erymos blasted through the rock using his arcane spells. With the calamity in the hallway the door opened slightly with someone popping his head through the door to look at the party the man looked surprised explaining he thought we wouldn’t be ‘here’ for another week. Slamming the door shut Harrimore pulled out a second shield in hand as he rushed down the hallway. Battering on the door the elven mage the ground also wanted to kill popped up.

Explaining this was all part of Hadrians plan and how we were going to die his words slowed as Harrimore hacked into what was revealed to be an illusion. With Gottri opening the door the party moved through ready for battle. An old relic of an evil arcane civlization could be seen. Two brothers spouted off their evil monologue and were dispatched a lot quicker than the group aniticipated. With a general idea of what the machine could do and where things were going to happened the party agreed to destroy the machine, Erymos started scrawling on the wall from what he found out the rest of the party having mixed emotions on if he was summoning a demon, going crazy, or just being Erymos.

With an idea how to detonate the machine to destroy it remotely he started the tunnel out of the ruins mining through the ceiling while Gottri created a rope ladder for the party to escape by. Once up and out of the way the Keeps forces burst into the room to which Erymos smiled and dropped several handwritten notes he had previous recieved. He mentioned to the ground they should go as he saw one of the men go to pick it up realizing it was a letter.

The explosions behind them hurried them along down the tunnel, coming topside the group saw the smoke and fire from the keep above getting a frown from Erymos who muttered about if he had overdone it a bit. The party made it back to the Capital two days south of the Keep and recouped for a bit. Hadrian seemed to be making a play of sorts again. They would need to report into the Church to give findings and plan out their next move. Erymos wondered if the brothers were really just patsy for some greater evil since the Mage was never mentioned the thought of him being their handler or watcher crossed the paranoid mage’s mind before he went into tinkering with a dimensional shift cage to pull one of the owlbeast into combat. Thoughts of finding the elusive Lord Rayafor and daughter came to mind as well if they were going back to Frandor’s Keep.

Recon mission turned razing

With a month going by Harrimore having recently come back to the capital from training to be an official Paladin and Templar of the Lantern, Erymos having spent his time doing his usual odd things of researching magic, trying to run the businesses, and the rest of the group left to their own devices after some down time the group reconvene to discuss things and the routing of the two sons plus the elven mage who may or may not be a several century old vile man who had his run of the area when the Hero Harrimore had recovered the sword from was around.

With the reports of intel back from the Church of the Lantern spies the group discussed their next move as well as finding out Torsten had sent in a replacement, a young human priest warrior named Leon. Salem still wanting to kill the Mage for which he explained he had done some bad things in the forrest (Mainly the killing of elves) was hired on as well for part of the newly consolidated Warriors of Light.

From the information gathered and the discussion on what to do the party reached an agreement. They didn’t know what to do and needed more information. The research on the torn magical bag lead to the bag being destroyed from the suggestion of the new cleric. Erymos reminded the group all their portable storage devices of magical nature could be targeted regardless. With enough supplies for a short two day trek up and back for a few days of scouting the party mostly stayed stationary while the Elven Ranger Salem and two more elves scouted around the area with Gottri. Little was known about the area besides the gamble there was an escape tunnel.

After a bit of searching the scout and ranger came back to let the party know there was a secret back entrance in around the guards which between human, ogres, and bugbears ranged into the 100s by estimates. The party was ready to go infilitrate but they couldn’t figure out how to get the majority of the party to the secret tunnel in considering the heavy armour most wore. Everyone looked at Erymos who had spent his down time sewing together a cloak of leaves and twigs he had smeared with Deer poop from Salem. With the odd look he sighed and asked if the party wanted him to turn them inivisible disappointed he couldn’t fully test out his new camoflauge. Summoning an unseen servant as well the party started the trek out to the the hidden entrance. When Salem was possibly spotted Erymos opted to send his servant out to smack leaves away from the part low to the ground and stomp random twigs on the way to send guards on a random goose chase.

Once at the tunnel entrance a trap was diabled and more exploring was done. The fort revealed to have a secret corridor arround most of the keep. Leading to various places. After the killing of two sleeping guards, finding out the keep was on alert, the location of the armory, the store room, and knocking out the kitchen staff, plus barricading the area they were in. The group opted to not go with Erymos’ plan to steal the Keep’s entire food supply and trekked down into the hidden ruins underneath the main dining area to hear the sound of magical machinery.

Stopping a bit confused in a room with mirrors the Cleric inspected one after Salem broke one. Gottri tapped one having his hand go through. Something on the otherside grabbed him pulling him in to his shoulder. Getting free and scrambling away he was reaching for his weapons and started to scream ‘Break the mirrors! Break the MIrrors!’. Although the Cleric tried to get the group to stop several arrorws in sucsession were quicker then the speed of the man’s tongue and the mirrors converged into the form of five things.

Erymos squeeked out a nervous voice yelling out ‘Golems’ scrambling for his Lute the party springing into battle. During which Erymos finally swore not getting off the right melody to calm the creatures and resorted to using his magics. In the midst of the battle Harrimore and his trio of proteges fought two of the golems, Grunk and the cleric squaring off on one each after Erymos nailed down the killing blow to one of the group. Gottri having been injured looked for a good spot to jump back into the fray trying to catch his wind.

Three Girls One Sword

Having found and salughtered an increasing more dangerous spectrum of the undead along the way the party find a secret pssage down to a room shaped like an eye after a short rest. Faced with the missing paladin turned to stone, Harrimore takes a knee and preys before Grunk says he spotted something in the large room lurking in the shadows, the ranger confirmed it and the party was on guard even though Harrimore had the sword removed by the dwarf and the elf. Three medusa like gorgon’s attack the group. Harrimore takes a flight potion as the guards close in. The battle that ensued ended with two of the gorgon’s beheaded and the final larger multiarmed one being turned to stone before Grunt drop kicks the creature shattering the statue.

There was a bit of contention on destroying the heads since they were ‘evil’ from Harrimore’s point of view. Ursala reminded Gottri and Harrimore in their scuffle that the head will loos it’s power soon, Erymos added in that the bringing back of the heads would greatly increase the belieability of their story… Harrimore didn’t really seem to think it was a good idea until Erymos added it would bring more fame and honor to the Church to which he more readily agreed. With the opposition dead and the loot accquired from the dead gorgons. Gottri is called upon to see if there is a secret passage out or something the three were guarding. It turned out the group found a small crypt with an empty coffin and a note, it seemed to be the same handwriting as the previous versions of exploding scripts sent to Erymos repeatedly.

Erymos let the group know that the mage that had gotten away may be one of the two evil undead brothers from the legend. Harrimore find it hard to believe when the other crypt is opened and it is also empyt. The idea both the brothers made a tomb to recoup at and lure the palidin into came to mind. Harrimore was displeased by the idea but was reminded he may have killed one of the brothers already by decapitation followed by cremation at the estate house in the capital.

Items Acquired:

One body of a palidin turned to stone placed at the Church of the Lantern in the Capital to be adorned in a place of honor and reverence.

One Holy avenger to be weilded by Harrimore.

Plate Mail +4 taken by Grunk

Medium Shield +4

Three suits of armor from the Medusa
Four tridents

Warriors of Light Inc had two dividend payouts before the group consolidates and recruits a new cleric and take on the intern Salem.

Tomb Raiders

After the defeat of the Wizard’s party (with the wizard optting to escape rather than fight).

An Elf bounty hunter showed up kicking the fighter in the privates and yelling out where the Mage was since he was going to kill him. Erymos opted to hide and protect the family jewels until he realized he meant the other wizard who fireballed him. Erymos immediately liked the guy add maybe opting to castrate the guy was another option.

The elf calming down finally realized the dwarven scout with a sword on his back asking him to make several sudden movements so he could repeated stab him.

Need to get a list of the items written out.

The group found the tomb was not that of the fallen hero but what he was trying to kill. Circumventing some elementals the group fought vampires, mummies, and demons before they figured out the way down to the next level. Erymos requested they take stock of the situation and possible take a break for lunch and a nap.